San Francisco head coach Rex Walters looks for an explanation from the refs during the second half against the Oregon Ducks in an NCAA college basketball game in Eugene, Ore. on Sunday, Nov. 24, 2013. (AP Photo/Chris Pietsch)

(12-13) 23:57 PST -- Cody Doolin's departure from the Dons last month after an altercation with a teammate in practice undoubtedly rocked many people in and around the USF basketball program, which already had to deal with six players transferring after the 2011-12 season.

Doolin, a clever point guard who started all 103 games in his college career, smoothly orchestrated the Dons' offense, in halfcourt sets or on the break.

Back in October, the WCC coaches picked USF to finish fourth in the conference. But now without Doolin, it's hard to envision USF finishing in the upper half of the WCC.

Don't tell that to USF head coach Rex Walters, though. He still believes the Dons can contend for the conference championship.

"This team is not about proving anything, proving anyone wrong," Walters said in a phone interview. "It's more about, we want to play. We think we're pretty good."

Since Doolin decided to leave the team - he remains enrolled at USF and is on track to finish his degree - the Dons have gone 2-2 against Division I competition. They've won at Montana and at home against Vermont, and lost at Oregon and at home against Illinois State.

Those two losses illustrate how much the Dons will miss Doolin. Last season, they were fifth in the nation in three-point field-goal percentage (40.1). Doolin was a big part of that, with his knack for penetrating the lane and then finding open shooters beyond the arc.

In the loss to the Ducks, USF went 8-for-28 from long range. Against the Redbirds, 4-for-27.

Sophomore Avry Holmes and junior Matt Glover, a transfer from Penn State, have shared the point-guard duties since Doolin's exit.

Neither has much experience at the point. Glover, in fact, hadn't played the position until the Dons' first game without Doolin, a 75-74 win at Montana on Nov. 22. At 6-foot-5, Glover had been projected to split time between shooting guard and small forward.

The Dons scored at least 90 points in each of the four games Doolin played this season. Walters knows the Dons must become "more of a grind-it-out team."

Said Walters: "We're going to be more structured without Cody. I think we need to be. ... We don't have that same type of playmaking. We have good playmaking, but it's different."

What's not different in the WCC is that the three teams expected to fight for the top spot - Gonzaga, St. Mary's and BYU - appear to be solid again; they're a combined 24-4. What is different is the addition of Pacific, which returns to the conference after an absence of more than four decades. The Tigers are 7-1.

"I haven't watched anybody in our league yet," Walters said, "but I know what we've got - and I like it."